COVID-19 and reproductive justice in Great Britain and the United States: Ensuring access to abortion care during a global pandemic

Abstract

In this paper we consider the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic is having on access to abortion care in Great Britain (GB) (England, Wales, and Scotland) and the United States (US). The pandemic has exacerbated problems in access to abortion services because social distancing or lockdown measures, increasing caring responsibilities, and the need to self-isolate are making clinics much more difficult to access, and this is when clinics are able to stay open which many are not. In response we argue there is a need to facilitate telemedical early medical abortion in order to ensure access to essential healthcare for people in need of terminations. There are substantial legal barriers to the establishment of telemedical abortion services in parts of GB and parts of the US. We argue that during a pandemic any restriction on telemedicine for basic healthcare is an unjustifiable human rights violation and, in the US, is unconstitutional.